Retroactive Housekeeping
by Elemnestra Aethelflaeda
Summary: Regarding the covert, embarrassed, I-can't-believe-we're-taking-this-seriously cross-referencing of classified reports that took place between two governments.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing anyone recognises.**_

******A/N: This could possibly be seen as sort-of in the same universe as _Housekeeping Duties_, but isn't necessarily. Either way, it doesn't particularly matter. Um. Alex Rider-wise, this is set pretty much anytime. _Stargate_-wise, it's an undisclosed period of time after _Fragile Balance_. **

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**__**Retroactive Housekeeping**_

The meeting didn't occur in cautiously neutral territory, in an undisclosed location, and it certainly wasn't attended by a minor, carefully selected contingent of representatives. In fact, the meeting never took place at all.

The purpose of this non-existent meeting was at first glance simple. It was not that a problem needed to be dealt with; it was that a problem did not _yet _exist, and hopefully never would. The governments concerned in the matter had long since learnt the value of a pre-emptive strike, however minute and subtle. The meeting had been planned to prevent the problem – the situation – from ever occurring, and therefore also from needing to be dealt with.

It had started when the United Kingdom had acquired a new, young, and spectacularly successful agent working for MI6. Much of that success stemmed from the youth of that agent – at fourteen years of age, the sheer unexpectedness of his employment counted for nearly as much, in the minds of some, as his high-quality training and expertise. The fact that MI6 had come by this new agent through blackmail and coercion had been neatly pushed to one side and ignored.

The situation had escalated when the United States had recently (finally, in the minds of some) followed suit in the path of the UK and MI6 in finding a suitable teenager of their own to exploit. This teenager was, it was found, just as susceptible to blackmail and coercion as the first, though this was due more to his technical nonexistence, and the lack of any laws protecting him.

The United Kingdom wasn't sure whether to be peeved that they were being copied, or peculiarly flattered that not only had they put the idea into action first, and gained sterling results, but that the notion was also thought to be worthy of mimicry.

For their part, the United States of America didn't wish to admit to having copied anyone. But, regardless, they found it hard to deny that this particular brand of corruption had indeed been performed earlier elsewhere.

As it stood, however, they were not being accused of wrongdoing by the other nation; this was instead, to be far more accurately defined, a case of mutual ass-covering. As such, the major activity of the conference was an extended session of covert, embarrassed, I-can't-believe-we're-taking-this-seriously cross-referencing of classified mission reports and heavily censored files. There took place much uncomfortable double-checking of events, places and people.

The circumstances surrounding the acquisition of their respective assets were found, in the course of this research, to be somewhat similar, and it was hurriedly agreed that any subsequent actions of course not outrageous in the least. Any further similarities were then firmly ignored.

Anywhere that the two teenagers may have run into each other was scoured extensively, as were even those places where either may have come across anyone else that had previously met the other; mutual acquaintances could prove to be just as harmful as direct knowledge. Harm, in this case, was defined as any situation or circumstance that may result in one government-employed teenager acquiring knowledge of the other.

Paranoid and unsubstantiated fear though this may appear, representatives of both governments had agreed that, however paranoid, their fears were probably not entirely unsubstantiated. After all, the catalysts of this fear were two cynical, bitter, jaded, government-hating, rebellious teenagers...teenagers with a highly, it could be termed, _unusual_ skill set, ruthlessly taken advantage of by their respective governments.

It was a direct result of all the information brought unflinchingly into the light during the meeting, that each of the attendees at some point shared a private, mutual, fervently mentally-articulated thought: _if each on their own can do all that is rumoured of them, do we really want them to ever meet?_ And then they, without exception, redoubled their efforts, and their resolve.

The meeting-that-never-was ended with both parties sharing one common vision, completely in agreement on at least one issue. To this end, their respective governments would be convinced, by any means necessary, that these two teenagers should never meet, never accidentally come across each other, and never even hear of each other. Doubtless the governments in question would agree; they would hate to knowingly allow something to remove their grip on their accumulated power.

And it would not be hard, surely, _surely _it would not be much to ask, to keep two teenagers, of all those alive in the world, from knowing of the other's existence?

-end-


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing anyone recognises.**

_**A/N: Sorry. I couldn't help it.**_

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_**Retroactive Housekeeping: 2**_

There was, unexpectedly and somewhat inexplicably, someone else sitting in the kitchen when Alex Rider returned home from school. He'd never seen the stranger before, a teen a couple of years older than him, but he knew that he had heard of him. Alex _also_ knew that he wasn't supposed to have heard of him, which had predictably only made Alex more determined to meet him. Apparently the other, slouching in a chair and eating from a pack of chips appropriated from the kitchen, had had the same urge.

But then, if the government was keeping something from a person, specifically Alex, then it was probably in Alex's best interests to find out what the hell it was, as quickly as possible. The same probably went for the other teen, who finished his current salt-and-vinegar-flavoured mouthful and then spoke up.

'Alex Rider,' he said calmly, simply stating a fact, and then continued 'Currently associated with MI6.'

Alex paused, and then said slowly 'Jack O'Neill. Currently associated with just about the entire American government but mostly, I think, with the US Air Force.'

O'Neill didn't say anything, but an appreciative smile curved the edges of his mouth. Alex took advantage of the pause to sit down before another shock could turn up and make him wish that he was.

'I think we should talk.'

'Yeah,' Alex said.

**-end-**


End file.
